Scope and Contents of the Materials

The collection contains agricultural, mathematical, and personal notes; religious meditations; correspondence; and a few legal and business papers. There are also some papers of one of Power's sons, Holloway Bunyan Power, born in 1834 in Alabama. He also was a farmer, and upon his father's death on November 6, 1866, he succeeded him as a preacher for Bethany Baptist Church. Some of the records of the church are included with this collection.

Collection Historical Note

Holloway Lee Power was born April 14, 1802 in Floyd County, Kentucky and appears on the census there as late as 1820. In 1821 he married Elizabeth Meals of Madison County, Alabama where he served as a Justice of the Peace from 1824 to 1826. In February 1825 he was baptized into Bethany Baptist Church and licensed to preach on October 22, 1842. In 1850 he moved his family from Hickory Flat, Alabama to Nacogdoches County, Texas where his son William already resided. He soon arranged to buy some land and established a farm there, growing mainly cotton and corn. First associated with North Church, Power became unhappy with the salaried preacher there, B. E. Lucas, and left to help organize Bethany Baptist Church of Nacogdoches County in 1853. Power preached in this church which was a member of the Little Hope Association of Primitive Baptists. In addition to farming and preaching, Power occasionally practiced medicine, as recorded in his daybook along with notes on ailments and cures. His interest in medicine may have stemmed from his own health problems as reflected in his two-part diary for 1850-1857. (Power, Bill K. "Power, Holloway Lee Family." In Nacogdoches County Families, 540. Dallas, TX.: Curtis Media Corporation, 1985.